Certain labels are applied to goods to provide pre-sale information to consumers, but are designed to be removable. With certain goods, it is either undesirable or impractical to apply such a label directly to the goods. For example, on textiles, a tag is often substituted for conventional adhesive labels to prevent residual adhesive from damaging or soiling the textile. These tags are attached to the textile by a lanyard (usually plastic or braided fibre such as a string) which is extended through the textile fibers or another unintrusive portion of the textile such as a button hole.
There has been an increased desire to protect the hang tags which accompany many collectibles, in particular those on plush animal toys. Because the value of some collectibles can decrease if there is damage to the accompanying tag or lanyard, it is of utmost importance to prevent damage to either the lanyard or the tag.
Plastic sheeting or coating is at times used to cover and protect certain hang tags. Such sheeting and coating are usually only expected to prevent soiling of the tag. However, such sheeting or coating is too flexible to prevent bending of the hang tag caused by ordinary handling and storage. At the same time, conventional rigid casement structures meant to secure and protect photos, keepsakes, badges and the like, would not be adequate to protect hang tags, especially hang tags on collectibles. Conventional casements generally require that either a portion of the tag protrude through the casement to accommodate connection of a lanyard thereto, or a separate member be mounted to or formed onto the exterior of the casement.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,497 to Levy proposes that identification indicia on an identification member be sandwiched between two plastic pieces. The design, however, leaves a portion of the identification member exposed and it utilizes that portion for connection to the lanyard.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,958 to Kudo proposes a casement-type device, configurable as either a badge or a pendant for holding a paper or plastic disc bearing indicia. The device has a loop member mounted to the top of the casement. The loop member is used for securing the casement to a chain, thereby defining a pendant. This construction is deficient as a hang tag protector. Such a construction would require attaching a lanyard to the casement directly rather than direct attachment to the tag. This would eliminate the cost, choice, and assembly advantages presently provided by hang tag technology. More importantly, where the manufacturer does not supply a protector for a hang tag, a protector would necessarily have to be applied by a consumer after the hang tag was already attached to a collectible item. With the Kudo device, either the original lanyard would have to be detached from the tag then reattached to the loop member, or an additional lanyard would have to be attached at one end to the collectible item with the other end being secured on the loop. Either re-attachment of the OEM lanyard to the loop or piercing the plush with another lanyard, would alter the product in a way which may lessen its value as a collectible.
Also, neither U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,497 nor U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,958 disclose a protective casement where indicia would be visible from more than one side. It would be desirable if a casement-type protector could display the hang tag from two sides, as OEM tags frequently provide information on both sides of the tag. It would also be advantageous to provide a casement-type protector which could be manufactured as a single unit with the ability to open and close the device around a swing tag.
The present invention is provided to solve these and other problems and to provide other advantages. A preferred embodiment will be disclosed and the novel aspects of the present invention will be particularly identified and discussed herein.